New Year pressure
How are you planning on welcoming the new year? Are you hittin’ the town in your cutest outfit? Are you traveling somewhere new? Are you sitting on the couch in your pjs waiting for the clock to hit 12 am just to go to bed? All of these are perfectly acceptable choices but what is it about this day that makes people feel the need to do certain things?
Why is New Years Eve such a big deal? I honestly think it causes people more stress than anything. I am 100% one of those people and it honestly is so annoying. Let’s start with the day itself. It is just another day. It’s not like at midnight all of our issues disappear and we get to start with a clean slate. As wonderful as that sounds, that's just not how it works. And hey if you want to be at a bar mackin out with a stranger when the clock hits 12 am, I am here for it. You do you! But you should not feel like you HAVE to be out partying till the sun comes up. It is perfectly fine if that is so not your thing and you’d rather be home playing board games with the fambam. I don’t think social media helps with these situations. You see everyone “having a blast” at the bars and it makes you feel a bit like a loser. But why does that make you feel like a loser? It shouldn’t. So if this hits home and you are totally relating to this scenario, maybe block your social media apps for the day. Focus on your plans and do what makes you happy on this day. Don’t compare your plans to everyone else’s.
Then we have New Year resolutions. These are honestly usually a bunch of BS. We come up with all these huge goals that we plan on starting at 12am on NYE and making it the entire year. Well that is a bit unrealistic and lets be honest we hit the gym for a solid week or two and then it's all downhill from there. Then when this happens we get all upset with ourselves and just say “better luck next year”. Like why is this the only day you can set goals to accomplish? Why not any of the other 364 days? No wonder why this day comes with so much pressure. God forbid you have a glass of wine or a beer any day after December 31st, boom you failed at life.
Don’t get me wrong, goal setting is great, but not when there is this much pressure behind them all. In my opinion it sets us up for failure. I think we need to shift our thinking on it all. Personally this year instead of using the term “goal”, I will be focusing on habits I’d like to work on. When I hear the word “goal” it gives me the sense that you only succeed if you accomplish this goal by the end of the year. You are giving yourself only 365 days to accomplish some pretty huge things. So this year instead of setting unrealistic goals I am going to make a list of habits I want to get into some time throughout the year. They don't all need to start January 1st, and trust me, they won’t. But these will give me things to work on throughout the year leading into the years to come.
I hope you have a blast doing whatever you plan on doing tomorrow night. But I hope even more so that you do what you actually want to do and you don’t feel pressured to celebrate in a different way. Remember it is just another day and you don't need a new year reset, you are already doing great :)
Habits you can work on instead of goals (just ideas I had for myself):
Getting some form of exercise every week… instead of going to the gym everyday and having a 6 pack by summer.
Cooking at home more than eating out… instead of eating totally sugar and carb free.
Enjoy what more school has to offer for my last semester… instead of making it to every sporting event there is.
Work on a nice morning and night routine… instead of needing to use specific products in a specific order and needing to go to sleep and wake up at a specific time every day.
Be on my phone and social media less… instead of completely deleting all my social media
SPEND TIME BEING SELF-ISH!!
By being more general and not using specific numbers (everyday, 5 times a week, etc.) you are more likely to continue working on things and you won't feel discouraged if you aren’t able to follow things as aggressively.
